Algemeiner

Jewish human rights group the Anti-Defamation League accused the British actor of anti-Semitism himself for saying, “Mel Gibson is in a town that’s run by Jews and he said the wrong thing because he’s actually bitten the hand that I guess has fed him.”

“I don’t know about Mel. He got drunk and said a few things, but we’ve all said those things,” Oldman also said. “We’re all f*****g hypocrites. That’s what I think about it. The policeman who arrested him has never used the word n****r or that f*****g Jew? I’m being brutally honest here. It’s the hypocrisy of it that drives me crazy.”

In response, Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, said, “Gary Oldman’s remarks irresponsibly feed into a classic anti-Semitic canard about supposed Jewish control of Hollywood and the film industry.”

Foxman continued, “He should know better than to repeat and give credence to tired anti-Semitic tropes. Mel Gibson’s ostracization in Hollywood was not a matter of being ‘politically incorrect,’ as Mr. Oldman suggests, but of paying the consequences for outing himself as a bigot and a hater. It is disturbing that Mr. Oldman appears to have bought into Mr. Gibson’s warped and prejudiced world view.”

The ADL said the assertion that Jews “control” Hollywood, the media, banking and finance, among other things is an anti-Semitic stereotype based on the “Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion,” the 19th century anti-Semitic forgery that suggested Jews conspire to control major industries such as banking and finance. Read more ..

After the Holocaust

RFE/RL

Thanks to American film director Steven Spielberg, many people may think of German businessman Oskar Schindler as the man who did the most to save Polish Jews during World War II.

But in Poland, efforts are under way to bring Schindler-style recognition to a lesser-known figure -- Jan Karski, an eyewitness to the Holocaust whose daring wartime attempts to call attention to the slaughter of Polish Jews were largely ignored by the United States and Britain.

In a year when World War II anniversaries are focused on Normandy in the West and the end of the Leningrad Siege in Russia, Poland is honoring the centenary of the birth of its own wartime hero with commemorative coins, political lectures, and the reissue, in Polish and English, of Karski's 1944 memoir, "Story of a Secret State."

"It's an enormously complex task for Karski to get more recognition, because he remained silent for decades," says Wojciech Bialozyt, a young history buff who directs the Jan Karski Educational Foundation from an elegant office in Warsaw's diplomatic quarter. "He started being recognized in the beginning of the 1980s, and from then it was quite a short period while he was still alive. And in Poland, he was 100 percent unknown."

Karski, who died in 2000, spent most of his life in the United States, where he established a distinguished postwar career as a professor at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. But he is better known for his years as a member of Poland's WWII-era Underground State, the network of secret resistance organizations fighting the dual occupation of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, which individually invaded Poland from west and east within weeks of each other in September 1939.

Karski, who was born Jan Kozielewski in 1914, grew up in a large, working-class Catholic family in the city of Lodz. He went on to join Poland's diplomatic corps and served as a cavalry officer in the early days of the war. Following an escape from a Soviet detention camp, Karski changed his name and joined the underground, where he quickly became a high-value courier, carrying memorized strategic information from Poland to Allied leaders and the Polish government-in-exile in France and London. Read more ..

Israel on Edge

Haaretz

Australia's foreign minister assured ambassadors from Arab and Islamic countries on Thursday that her government's position on the Palestinian territories had not changed, despite the government changing its description of East Jerusalem from "occupied" to "disputed."

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop hosted the envoys of up to 18 countries accredited in Canberra, including Jordon, Iraq, Iran and Egypt, at her bureau for a meeting she described as "constructive."

She said in a statement that she told them her government's position is consistent with UN resolutions on the Palestinian territories. Australia also remains committed to achieving a just and lasting two-state solution, she said.

The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it had recently sent a letter of clarification to the ambassador of Morocco, whose country heads the Jerusalem Committee of the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation, detailing Australia's stance on the matter.

The Battle for Iraq

RFE/RL

The Middle East has always been a labyrinth of swiftly changing partnerships, and never more so than in Iraq today.

Start with the unlikely alliance that has made possible the lightning gains of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) this week in Iraq's Sunni heartland. By all indications, the ISIL is cooperating militarily with a reborn version of Iraq's former ruling Ba'athist Party.

Residents of Mosul say that the Islamist fundamentalists and the Ba'athists -- who have diametrically opposed ideologies -- took the city together. "I object to saying there is just the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant here," one man told Radio Free Iraq privately by phone from Mosul on June 12. "Those who entered the province of Nineveh are a mixture of the former army, the Ba'athists," and other militant Iraqi Sunni groups along with the ISIL, he said. Read more ..

Israelis and Palestinians

Algemeiner

As Israel frantically searched for three abducted teens, Amina Abbas, the wife of Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas underwent treatment in a Tel Aviv hospital, according to a just-released report.

Abbas was hospitalized on the seventh floor of the orthopedic neuro-surgery department at the private Assuta Medical Center last Thursday, reportedly for minor foot surgery, according to Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot. She was released on Sunday.

Abbas’ wife was under heavy guard, the report said, and Israeli officials have, so far, refused to discuss the case. “Assuta does not disclose information about who is hospitalized or being treated at its facility, out of concern for patient privacy, and as a result, can neither confirm or deny any details relating to the patient,” a hospital official said. Read more ..

Islam on Edge

Algemeiner

Czech president Miloš Zeman, via his spokesman, stood by a speech made at the Israeli Embassy in Prague, where he quoted the Koran calling for Muslims to kill Jews, refusing to retract what he said or apologize for quoting from the holy book.

Czech media reported spokesman Jiří Ovčáček’s statement saying that Zeman would not be apologizing for his statements in which he linked Islamic ideology with violence.

“President Zeman definitely does not intend to apologize,” the spokesman said. “For the president would consider it blasphemy to apologize for the quotation of a sacred Islamic text.” Read more ..

South Korea on Edge

ACD

The April tragedy of the ferry Sewol sinking off the coast of South Korea has brought the country to an important crossroads. Over the last two months, there has been a collective national attempt to pull the country together by addressing some of the immediate issues and questions that have emerged from the tragedy, which many believe should have never occurred in the first place. As Korean citizens ask tough, fundamental questions in search of explanations that could account for the disaster, authorities have struggled to find answers and measures that might satisfy. As of this writing, some 16 victims have yet to be found. The public outcry of grief and anger is palpable, and will not soon disappear from the public sphere, let alone from the news and social media. As the search for the remaining victims continues, South Koreans at all levels of society-from the grassroots to top government authorities-appear to be united and ready to take some very difficult steps to ensure nothing like this happens again.

Education on Edge

AEI

As Kathleen Porter-Magee wrote in National Review earlier this year, for almost three decades conservatives have pursued a two-pronged strategy for education reform. One prong relies on standards and accountability, holding schools and teachers accountable for their results. The other relies on school choice, using the pressures of the marketplace to encourage improvement.

As school choice grows around the country, there are increasing calls for the prongs to twist into each other, with schools of choice (and the teachers within them) being held to the same or similar benchmarks as their counterparts in traditional public schools.

This manifested itself in numerous state Race to the Top applications. From New York to South Carolina, states promised that their new teacher evaluation systems would apply to public and charter schools alike. Read more ..

Nigeria on Edge

VOA

A new report shows that Nigeria now has the largest internally displaced population in Africa, and the third largest in the world. In recent years, hundreds of thousands of people fled Boko Haram insurgents in the northeast but some families are returning to their homes, saying there is nowhere safe for them to hide.

Last month, reports circulated that residents of Kala Balge, a farming community in northeastern Nigeria, had killed 200 Boko Haram insurgents. About ten days ago, militants came back for revenge.

Abba Abdulmumini, a Kala Balge community leader, said they stormed 10 villages in the area, burning homes, killing at least four people and sending thousands of people running for their lives. “The situation is quite pathetic. And it's like the Nigerian government is not willing to act. People are being killed like chickens,” said Abdulmumini.

He said with no security forces in the area people wanted to keep fighting, but they ran out of ammunition. “The fighting power of the Boko Haram insurgents cannot be matched by the local weapons around. In fact, they have the heart to fight but they don’t have the weapons. They don’t have the arms,” said Abdulmumini. Read more ..

Hamas-PA Unity

Washington Institute

New findings from three public opinion polls in the West Bank and Gaza show overwhelming support for a new "unity" government backed by both Hamas and Fatah -- even as a narrower majority still supports peace talks and peaceful coexistence with Israel.

The idea of a Palestinian unity government, as announced this week, enjoys very broad backing among West Bank and Gaza Palestinians, according to a reliable poll by Ramallah-based Arab World for Research and Development (AWRAD) conducted May 24-26. Three quarters in both territories support integrating Fatah and Hamas security services and including Hamas in the Palestine Liberation Organization. An even larger majority supports reconciliation even if it results in U.S. economic sanctions or Israeli political pressure. In a related finding, overall optimism has surged 15 points since March, with an especially large jump in Gaza, from 46 to 71 percent. Read more ..

The Edge of Healthcare

RFE/RL

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets is under fire for speaking out against sending sick children abroad for treatment, a statement denounced by health advocates as part of Russia's mounting isolationist drive.

Speaking on June 1, International Children's Day, Golodets ordered health authorities to increase scrutiny of charities raising funds for treatment in foreign clinics.

According to her, most children are unnecessarily sent abroad for medical treatment. "Almost any kind of high-tech medical care can now be obtained domestically," she said.

The claim has sparked an outcry among health advocates, who say Russia suffers from a dire shortage of qualified doctors and modern, well-equipped medical facilities. It follows a series of similar comments by Russian officials, including Russia's chief child oncologist, Vladimir Polyakov, who said in February that sending children abroad for cancer treatment amounts to "speculation" and "discredits Russian medicine." Read more ..

The Battle for Ukraine

RFE/RL

Not long ago, volunteers in Kyiv cooked food at home and delivered it and other supplies daily to the activists manning the barricades in the battle that toppled former President Viktor Yanukovych.

Now, volunteer groups across Ukraine are raising funds and buying equipment for soldiers fighting in the east of the country and, in some cases, delivering the supplies directly to the soldiers themselves.

Tatiana Rychkova is one of the organizers of a volunteer group in Dnipropetrovsk in central Ukraine. She raises money to purchase bulletproof vests, binoculars, and pain-killing drugs. Then she loads it all into her car and heads for the restive Donbas region. Read more ..

After the Holocaust

Mint Press

The Chinese government has reportedly started reviewing whether China’s domestic banks’ use of high-end American-made IBM servers compromises the nation’s security, particularly with regards to financial espionage and sabotage.

According to individuals knowledgeable of the situation — as relayed by Bloomberg — the People’s Bank of China and the Ministry of Finance, along with other government agencies, are asking banks to remove the IBM servers and replace them with a locally-made product on a trial run.

On cursory examination, this seems in sync with other actions China has taken in recent weeks in response to revelations leaked by former Booz Allen Hamilton subcontractor Edward Snowden concerning the U.S. federal government’s heavy use of domestic and international electronic signal surveillance in violation of both personal liberties and national sovereignty. The Chinese government recently announced that it will vet foreign technology companies operating in China, and the Financial Times reported on May 25 that China’s state-owned companies have been ordered to cut ties with American consulting firms. In both instances, China has cited national security concerns. Read more ..

Obama's Second Term

The Hill

The Secret Service wants to hire an Internet analysis company that can detect when people are being sarcastic.

In an online notice posted on Monday, the agency said that it was looking for a “social media analytics software tool” that could “detect sarcasm and false positives,” among other features.

The service should also be able to analyze information in real time, search key words in multiple languages, represent trends in “heat maps” and graphs and divide up Web activity by audience and geography, the Secret Service said. Companies applying for the five-year contract should be able to “visually present complex data in a clear, concise manner,” “synthesize large sets of social media data” and “provide user friendly functionality to multiple staff members.” Read more ..

Spain on Edge

Speroforum

Felipe González, a former Socialist prime minister of Spain, warned against following the example of Venezuela’s so-called Bolivarian Revolution instigated by deceased Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. González said that it would be a “catastrophe”, not only for Spain but for the rest of Europe, to pursue “Bolivarian alternatives influenced by some regressive utopias”.

Speaking on May 28 in Madrid at a conference entitled “Democracy without politics”, González also said that there is a growing gap between Spain’s political elites and the people. Listeners assumed that the former leader of Spain was referring to ‘Podemos’ – Spanish for ‘we can’ – a political movement that was launched in January 2014 by Pablo Iglesias, a professor of political science. Gonzalez did not address the current crisis within his own Socialist Party. Read more ..

Afghanistan on Edge

RFE/RL

The Afghan government might have hailed the United States’ early timetable for a complete withdrawal from the country. But behind the scenes, many in Afghanistan are dismayed by the prospect of being abandoned by Washington -- the country’s key ally and benefactor.

Kabul assumed that a foreign presence was likely to continue for a further decade after the NATO-led combat mission ends this year -- as specified in the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) both countries have agreed to but Afghanistan has yet to sign. Washington needs the agreement in order for its troops to stay in Afghanistan beyond this year.

But U.S. President Barack Obama caught many off guard when he announced this week that Washington would keep only 9,800 troops after this year, then swiftly withdraw virtually all of those by the end of 2016.

In Afghanistan, the announcement has reaffirmed doubts over America’s military and financial commitment. Many Afghans worry that the country’s fledgling security forces will struggle to fend off the Taliban without foreign funding and assistance, and say a complete withdrawal would send the country spiraling into chaos. Read more ..

The Battle for Ukraine

RFE/RL

Rumors that battle-hardened Chechen fighters from Russia's notorious Vostok Battalion are active in eastern Ukraine have been swirling for weeks.

They unexpectedly materialized on May 29 when dozens of heavily armed men identifying themselves as members of the Vostok Battalion stormed the separatists' headquarters in central Donetsk, evicting the motley band of pro-Russian rebels that had occupied the building since March.

The brazen raid, conducted in broad daylight, has plunged the region into new uncertainty. The emergence of such a widely recognizable Russian military structure in eastern Ukraine has also raised questions about Moscow's role in the conflict.

So what is the Vostok Battalion and what is it doing in eastern Ukraine? The Vostok ("East") Battalion was formed by Chechen warlord Sulim Yamadayev in 1999, at the onset of the second Chechen war. Read more ..

Islam on Edge

Gatestone

April Item 1: The number of so-called taxi-rapes has snowballed to such an extent that a British judge recently issued a warning that no woman can expect to be safe while travelling in a cab. April Item 2: Ibrahim Munir, an exiled senior leader of the Muslim Brotherhood now living in Britain, when asked if violence would be an option, replied, "Any possibility." April Item 3: "Do I have to change my religion to get the best [banking] deal?" — Lloyds Bank customer, quoted in The Daily Telegraph.

Islam and Islam-related issues were omnipresent in Britain during the month of April 2014, and can be categorized into three broad themes: 1) The British government's growing concern over Islamic extremism and the domestic security implications of British jihadists in Syria; 2) The continuing spread of Islamic Sharia law in all aspects of British daily life; and 3) Ongoing questions of Muslim integration into British society. Read more ..

The Economic Edge

VOA

It’s shearing season at Sugarloaf Farm just outside Washington, where most of the alpacas don't seem to mind getting a haircut.

But whether they like it or not, the 130 animals will have their woolly fleece sheared. It will keep them from getting overheated during the summer months while generating a cool profit for farm owner Kevin Brandt.

“We’re finding that there are more people in the marketplace looking for alpaca yarns because it’s considered to be hypoallergenic, and it’s really as soft as cashmere,” he said.

Fleece qualityBrandt keeps both types of alpacas at his farm; the Huacaya and the Suri. “The Suri has the long, dreadlock-like fiber and the Huacaya has the fluffy, teddy bear style,” he said. The animals provide three different grades of fleece.

The finest comes from the animals’ back, hip and shoulder and is usually made into clothing. The next-best grade comes from the neck. The third-grade fleece, from the legs and belly, is a coarser fiber that is used for rugs and accessories. Read more ..

Islam on Edge

AP

A pregnant woman was stoned to death Tuesday by her own family outside a courthouse in the Pakistani city of Lahore for marrying the man she loved.

The woman was killed while on her way to court to contest an abduction case her family had filed against her husband. Her father was promptly arrested on murder charges, police investigator Rana Mujahid said, adding that police were working to apprehend all those who participated in this "heinous crime."

Arranged marriages are the norm among conservative Pakistanis, and hundreds of women are murdered every year in so-called honor killings carried out by husbands or relatives as a punishment for alleged adultery or other illicit sexual behavior. Read more ..

The Digital Edge

EE Times

There have been several lawsuits against hobbyist drone flyers, including a recent one in France where an 18-year-old boy from Nancy filmed a video of his hometown using a GoPro camera mounted onto a small drone. Nans Thomas was eventually fined 400 Euros for violating the DGAC’s sky rules (Direction Générale de l’Aviation Civile) and endangering the lives of others, a fairly light sentence if you consider the maximal sentence could have been one year of imprisonment and a 15,000 Euros fine (violating flying safety rules bear a maximal fine of 75,000 euros but this charge was not taken into account).

In the USA, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) tried to fine an aerial photographer for “reckless flying”, but the court found that the FAA had no authority over small unmanned aircraft when it imposed the first-ever such fine on a drone operator. In fact the FAA has yet to come with dedicated rules for lightweight drones (under 25 kilograms). But in both cases, the general rules that would apply are that recreational drones should stay away from populated areas. Read more ..

The Edge of Climate Change

VOA

While an international agreement on climate change remains elusive, African nations are moving closer to a unified strategy. Africa has experienced more extreme weather events in recent years as global temperatures rise.

Dr. Joseph Mukabana said the continent is on the front lines of climate change. He said that has led to a draft version of – what’s called -- The Implementation Plan of the Integrated African Strategy on Meteorology.

“Africa is the most vulnerable continent when it comes to climate change. Out of the 48 least developed countries, 33 are in Africa. So, the priority in Africa is to adapt on climate change. You either adapt or die,” he said. Mukabana --director of the regional office for Africa and Least Developed Countries of the World Meteorological Organization – said that climate events far from Africa are having an effect on the continent. Read more ..

The Battle for Ukraine

RFE/RL

Many in Ukraine and around the world have pinned their hopes for stabilizing the country on the outcome of the May 25 presidential election.

One key to a free and fair election is the performance of the media, and a new report by the Academy of the Ukrainian Media and the nongovernmental organization (NGO) Telekritika gives the Ukrainian media mixed, but passing marks.

The organizations monitored election coverage of major broadcast and print media outlets from March 1 until May 18. They found that the number of suspected "paid" stories supporting one candidate or another was down significantly from past elections.

The report notes that campaign coverage has been "significantly more objective" than in previous Ukrainian elections, in part because the ongoing violence in the east and the clash over Ukraine between Russia and the West have forced election coverage out of the top news slots. Read more ..

The Way We Are

VOA

The United States ranks as the most competitive country in the world in a survey of 60 countries by IMD, a leading global business school in Switzerland. The survey finds Europe is recovering some of its competitive edge, while emerging economies are struggling to hold their own.

Authors of the report say the United States owes its top position to its resilient economy, better employment numbers, and dominance in technology and infrastructure. It is followed in the competitiveness ranking by three small economies - Switzerland, Singapore, and Hong Kong - all of which prosper from exports, business efficiency and innovation.

The report finds Europe is doing better than last year, thanks to its gradual economic recovery, but most of the big emerging markets are sliding in the rankings. It says the so-called BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China - are losing out in the competitiveness race as economic growth and foreign investment slow and infrastructure remains inadequate. China, which is widely expected to supplant the United States as the world's economic superpower, has fallen two places since last year and now ranks 23rd on the competitiveness index. Read more ..

The Battle for Ukraine

RFE/RL

Outside the burnt out shell of Odesa's Trade Union building, Angela Sedova places flowers around a makeshift memorial to the over 40 mainly pro-Russian protesters who died after being engulfed in flames during clashes with Ukraine-unity demonstrators.

Between sobs, the 47-year-old social worker who supports anti-Kyiv separatists, describes how the five-story building burned for nearly an hour before she saw any sign of police. She says local forces deserted them.

"On my way home I went to the police station to write a report [about what I saw] and I said, people, are you not ashamed?" she says.

Eleven blocks away, on Odesa's downtown Deribasivska street, Ihor and Viktoria, a pro-unity couple in their early 20s, tell RFE/RL that it was near here that police allegedly provided cover for pro-Russian protesters to shoot live ammunition at them. Read more ..

The Battle for Ukraine

RFE/RL

Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine's richest man, normally prefers shadows to sunlight. But that's changed in the past week, with a series of strikes and noisy protests calling for the ouster of pro-Russian separatists from his native Donetsk.

In the latest demonstration on May 20, the billionaire called on Donetsk residents to stage daily protests until the self-declared "Donetsk People's Republic," the driving force behind the May 11 self-rule referendum, was eliminated.

Akhmetov's sudden description of separatists as "bandits and looters" is in full keeping with concerns expressed in Kyiv, which feared Ukraine was preparing to lose its eastern flank to Russia, and had staged numerous "antiterrorist operations" in an effort to prevent it.

But the sentiment was somewhat surprising coming from a man who is widely believed to have been one of the separatists' primary funders. Pavel Gubarev, the self-styled governor of the "people's republic," asserted that Akhmetov, whose personal fortune is estimated at $11 billion, provided up to two-thirds of the movement's operational funds. (Akhmetov denied the claim.) Read more ..

The Battle for Ukraine

RFE/RL

Acting Ukrainian President Oleksandr Turchynov has asked the Justice Ministry to evaluate evidence of illegal activities by the Ukrainian Communist Party and to consider banning it.

Turchynov said on May 18 that he had sent the request to the Justice Ministry and that he believed "a Ukrainian court will put an end to this matter." According to the presidential website, the country's security service has documented the party's role in the separatist movements in the east and determined that several party members have acted "to the detriment" of Ukraine's interests.

But Ukraine observers are wondering if this is the right moment to raise this question, in light of the ongoing instability in the eastern part of the country and the faltering efforts of the Kyiv government to bolster its legitimacy. Read more ..

The Battle for Ukraine

RFE/RL

When he ripped down a separatist flag from the main government building in Novohradovka, his hometown in eastern Ukraine, Oleksandr Hurov knew he was in for trouble. Retaliation was quick, and ruthless.

Two weeks later, the 36-year-old coalminer lies in a Kyiv hospital with a fractured jaw, a broken nose, a lacerated arm, and cracked ribs.

"They beat me nonstop," he said. "I was lying on the ground; they kicked me and hit me on the head with a gun. One of them held my arm outstretched while another one jumped on it. I passed out from time to time, which was great because then I couldn't feel the pain."

Hurov says his assailants called him a "traitor" and tried to peel off the nationalistic tattoo on his shoulder – inscribed with the words "Glory to Ukraine, glory to the heroes" – using the jagged edges of a smashed light bulb. Hurov's grisly story is an increasingly familiar one in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatists are accused of waging a campaign of abductions and torture as they seek to consolidate their grip on the region. Read more ..

The US and China

AEI

Just four days after the conclusion of President Barack Obama's trip to reassure the United States' Asian allies of its commitments to defend them, China challenged U.S. credibility and staying power in Asia. Obama's week of tough-minded statements during his swing through the region -- including his announcement that the U.S.-Philippines alliance is "ironclad" -- apparently left Beijing, the unstated target of the trip, unmoved.

Escalating the already tense situation in the South China Sea, China sent an oil rig into waters also claimed by Vietnam, and followed this provocative move by dispatching 80 vessels, including naval and coast guard ships, to defend the rig.

Though China has been increasingly aggressive in the South and East China Seas over the last three years, the dispatch of an oil rig indicates a troubling change in Chinese behavior. First, the nature of the act marks a notable shift: An oil rig is a more permanent signal of China's intent to explore for oil in contested waters and therefore a brazen attempt to unilaterally define maritime territory. Second -- and more ominously -- given that the move was made right after the president's trip, there is every reason to believe that China is treating the United States not with anger or fear but with contempt. Read more ..

Broken Education

The federal government violates its own student loan rules and wastes hundreds of millions of dollars to subsidize perpetually failing black colleges, an investigation has found.

The institutions are known as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) and JW’s probe has uncovered documents that show American taxpayers are being forced to fund them even when their accreditation has been stripped, they have dismal graduation rates and rank among the nation’s worst medical schools. For instance, Meharry Medical College (where the late Jackson’s physician, Conrad Murray, got his degree) is renowned for producing an alarming number of inept doctors along with third-world institutions like Manila Central University in the Philippines and the Autonomous University of Guadalajara in Mexico, according to records obtained by JW.

Russia on Edge

RFE/RL

At least six Russian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have been subjected to unannounced inspections in recent days.

The raids were conducted by prosecutors in three different regions, and targeted well-known rights groups such as the Union of Soldiers' Mothers, Agora, and the Committee Against Torture.

The Russian daily "Kommersant," which first broke the news on May 13, described the move as the beginning of a second wave of NGO sweeps.

Thousands of NGOs operating in Russia were raided last year after the country adopted a controversial "foreign agents" law requiring NGOs that receive funding from abroad and engage in political activities, which are broadly defined, to register as foreign agents. Read more ..

The Edge of Climate Change

VOA

Intense winds help Antarctica keep its cool despite climate change, according to a new study.

Scientists overwhelmingly agree global warming exists and humans are largely responsible, but Antarctica seems to have bucked the trend, with portions of it cooling, while the rest of the planet heats up.

The key to Antarctic weather is the wind, says Australian National University climate scientist Nerilie Abram, lead author of a new study that explains this in the context of a warmer world.

“They control how far north the rain bands go out of the Southern ocean," Abram said. "And they are also really important for temperature and in particular for the temperature of Antarctica and also the Antarctic peninsula, which is the bit of Antarctica that juts out right into the path of those westerly winds.” Read more ..

The Edge of Justice

Center for Public Integrity

She was barely 15 and scared at the prospect of being in court. She agreed to plead guilty to truancy. But when Judge Tim Irwin announced what he planned to do with her, the girl known as A.G. screamed in disbelief.

Guards forced the sobbing teen out of the Knox County Juvenile Court and clapped shackles on her legs. She had been struggling with crippling anxiety and what she said was relentless bullying at school. Now she was being led through a county juvenile detention center to a cell with a sliver of a window and a concrete slab with a mattress. For truancy.

“I cried all night long,” A.G. said. “It seemed like everyone was against us in court.”

Like tens of thousands of kids every year, A.G. was in court to answer for a non-criminal infraction that only a minor can commit. These infractions are called “status offenses,” and they can include skipping school, running away, underage drinking or smoking or violating curfews. But since status offenses aren’t technically crimes, indigent minors don’t benefit from the constitutional right to the appointment of defense counsel before they plead guilty. Read more ..

The Battle for Syria

JPC

The Syrian National Coalition (SNC) announced on Monday that the U.S. government has granted the organization foreign mission status. The move upgrades their Washington and New York offices to carry the same designation as other non-government delegations. The SNC will now be able to conduct business transactions in U.S. markets and also contact Syrians living in the U.S.

The SNC is an alliance of anti-Assad groups that the U.S. first recognized as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people in 2012. However, coalition president Ahmad Jarba is making his first visit to Washington just this week. Six weeks ago, the Obama administration finally closed the Syrian embassy and expelled officials with ties to President Bashar al-Assad. Read more ..

The Battle for Syria

VOA

A senior United Nations official says international support for Jordan is needed to head off growing resentment against Syrian refugees. He warns competition between the refugees and host communities for scarce resources is causing strains.

Nearly 600,000 Syrian refugees have fled to Jordan to escape fighting in their country. Only 20 percent of them live in camps where United Nations and private aid agencies provide them with care and assistance. The other 80 percent are living in host communities.

They rely on basic government subsidies and on basic social services. This is putting enormous pressure on the infrastructure of the country. The U.N. resident humanitarian coordinator for Jordan, Edward Kallon, says there is an urgent need for development investment in Jordan to sustain the humanitarian investment. Read more ..

The Edge of Terrorism

VOA

The White House Monday confirmed the United States is helping Nigeria in the effort to find and free nearly 300 schoolgirls abducted April 14 from a school in northeastern Borno State. On the same day the Islamist militant group Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the mass abduction, a U.S. spokesperson suggested many of the girls may have already been moved out of the country.

"The president has been briefed several times, and his national security team continues to monitor the situation there closely. The State Department has been in regular touch with the Nigerian government about what we might do to help support its efforts to find and free these young women," said Carney. Read more ..

The Race for EVs

EEtimes

Ironically one potential wrinkle in Tesla’s $5 billion Gigafactory lithium-ion battery strategic plans could turn out to be an environmental one.

Saving the environment of the planet is supposed to be one of the key reasons why people should be switching to battery-powered electric vehicles in the future. The argument goes that battery-powered EVs cause less pollution than their petrol-powered rivals but as western societys more environmentally conscious citizens consider whether to switch to so-called eco-friendly EVs we now realize that damaging forms of air and water pollution are blighting large tracts of China. Unfortunately a contributory factor in the Chinese pollution syndrome is caused by a vital constituent of EV batteries namely graphite. Read more ..

The Battle for Ukraine

RFE/RL

As pro-Russian separatists continue to tighten their grip in eastern Ukraine, some angry Ukrainians have given them a nickname that sums up just how they feel about teeming swarms of unwanted pests: "koloradi."

The term is short for Colorado potato beetles, the invasive, plant-eating insects that are the scourge of gardeners and farmers around the globe.

Koloradskiye zhuki, as the plump, six-legged bugs are known locally, are distinctive for their bright orange-and-black stripes. In this, they bear a marked resemblance to the orange-and-black St. George ribbon, a symbol of Russian military valor that has become de rigueur lapel-wear for the separatists occupying administration buildings in cities like Donetsk and Slovyansk. Read more ..

The EU and Russia

RFE/RL

The European Union's enlargement commissioner, Stefan Fuele, says the EU has contributed to the current conflict in Ukraine by "failing" to understand Russian President Vladimir Putin's past statements about the legacy of the U.S.S.R.

"We didn't take seriously the message that President Putin sent to us when he said a couple of years ago that the dissolution of the Soviet Union was the biggest catastrophe of the 20th century," said Fuele in an interview.

"At the 2008 Bucharest NATO-Russia summit, I was in the room when Putin said Ukraine was an 'artificial country,'" Fuele added. "Half of us laughed, half of us didn't understand. But we do understand now. We're not laughing anymore." Read more ..

The Cyber Edge

ACD

Deep in shadowy chat rooms, where normal users never visit, there's an entirely different world. Its denizens conduct their business secretly, keeping their distance from journalists and information security experts who try to meddle in their affairs. This business has rules of its own -- the collection of forums and websites we call "darknet". The tracks of every virus and malware that threaten innocent users lead there.

Did you ever attempt to enter a specific site while surfing, when suddenly a pop-up window asked you to update a software for you to be able to view the content? In many cases this is a trojan. It's also important to remember that even if you press X to close that pop-up window you still get infected. Software, however, has to be updated regularly despite all that, to avoid a totally different type of attack, and it's important to download these updates through official websites rather than through pop-ups in third-party websites. These software updates, in many cases, deal with software vulnerabilities that can be abused by hackers in order to infect computers. Read more ..